Ruriden, Tokyo – The Ruriden, operated by the Koukokuji buddhist temple, took two years to build and houses 2,046 futuristic alters with glass Buddha statues that correspond to drawers storing the ashes of the deceased.

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Photos:Inside Asia's surprisingly lively graves

Ruriden, Tokyo – Passersby would never guess what's inside this traditional looking temple. The Ruriden is just one example of columbariums in Asia embracing a more forward-thinking approach to burials.

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Photos:Inside Asia's surprisingly lively graves

Ruriden, Tokyo – An electronic card allows the owner of the alter to access the Ruriden. To make it easier to find a loved one's remains, a corresponding Buddha lights up when visitors swipe in.

Ruriden, Tokyo – Ashes are stored for 33 years before being buried below the Ruriden. Currently 600 alters are in use and another 300 are reserved.

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Photos:Inside Asia's surprisingly lively graves

Floating Eternity, Hong Kong – The burial cruise will sail around the back of Hong Kong island on normal days, docking at major Hong Kong harbors during the Chung Yeung Festival and Ching Ming festivals, cultural holidays for commemorating their ancestors.

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Photos:Inside Asia's surprisingly lively graves

Chai Wan, Hong Kong – A city well-known for its aging population and land scarcity, Hong Kong burial cites can be over-crowded.

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Photos:Inside Asia's surprisingly lively graves

Hong Kong – In 50 years' time, the number of deaths per year will have almost doubled in the city, according to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.

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Photos:Inside Asia's surprisingly lively graves

Tokyo -- Shinjuku Rurikoin Byakurengedo columbarium takes a high-tech approach to death with a smart automatic storage system, enabling the building to house tens of thousands of ash urns.

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Story highlights

By 2050, one in every four people in Asia-Pacific will be over 60 years old.

Floating Eternity is a sea-faring cemetery that will relieve pressure on Hong Kong's crowded burial sites.

With more people dying and less space available, architects and city planners are imagining bold and modern ways to bury the departed, which are both efficient and respectful.

From conveyor-belt columbarium to floating cemeteries and even space burials, the Asian funeral scene is undergoing an exhilarating transformation.

Death might be inevitable, but it doesn't have to be predictable.

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High-tech deaths

Japan has seen perhaps the most dramatic changes to its burial scene.

Since the Edo period (1603-1868), inherited rural graves and, more recently, urban cemetery spots have been passed down through the generations of a family.

But the cost of keeping a burial plot has skyrocketed in recent years. Today, a spot in prestigious Aoyama Cemetery, in Tokyo, costs $100,000, while even locker-style columbarium -- called nokotsudo -- can fetch $12,000 at a centrally located Buddhist temple.

Furthermore, with single households in Japanese on the rise, reliance on an inherited burial site is less practical.

From the outside, Ruriden looks like a traditional Buddhist burial building with wooden doors and gracefully curving eaves.

But upon swiping an electronic pass card to enter, the doors swish open to unveil a dazzling display of 2,045 LED-lit Buddha statues. The relevant Buddha glows a different color, guiding each visitor to the niche that houses their loved one's remains.

Not an incense stick or memorial plaque is in sight.

An electronic card allows the owner of the alter to access the Ruriden.

A niche here costs $7,379, including maintenance, and can be used for 30 years before the remains are moved to a communal area under the building, to make way for incoming remains.

For many elderly without children, this removes the worry about maintenance of their niche, or passing it on to the next generation.

"Japan's population is declining due to a failing birthrate ... it is getting difficult to hand over the family grave to the next generation," Taijun Yajima, head priest of Kokokuji Buddhist Temple in Tokyo, which operates Ruriden, tells CNN.

The Shinjuku Rurikoin Byakurengedo

"But the tradition and sentiment towards the deceased has not changed even we though use high tech solutions. This columbarium just meets the needs of the times."

But even ashes need a home, and reserving a nichein a public columbarium has become akin to winning the lottery, with thousands of families on waiting lists to secure a tiny square foot of space, according to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), which oversees these facilities.

Meanwhile, a private columbarium niche can cost over $100,000.

With about 50,000 deaths a year in Hong Kong -- a city of 8 million people -- there will be a shortage of 400,000 niches by 2023, according to the FEHD.

The "Floating Eternity" is a sea-faring cemetery aimed at relieving pressure on the city's burial sites, and designed by local architectural firm Bread Studios.

"It seems like a waste to reserve so much valuable land for places we only visit twice a year."

Photos:A cruise for cremains

A floating cemetery in Hong Kong? – Floating cemeteries drifting along Hong Kong's coastline could be the solution to the country's lack of land space and aging population.

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Photos:A cruise for cremains

A floating cemetery in Hong Kong? – The bamboo gardens and the food court account for Chinese families who like to practice the tradition of bringing food when they visit their ancestors.

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Photos:A cruise for cremains

A floating cemetery in Hong Kong? – During busy seasons such as Chung Yeung and Ching Ming festival, the "Floating Eternity" will stay docked at various piers, according to the company.

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Photos:A cruise for cremains

A floating cemetery in Hong Kong? – Bread Studio hopes that visiting the floating cemetery will become a way of family bonding.

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The Floating Eternity, if built, would offer enough columbarium space to house the ashes of 370,000 people. The design incorporates cultural details, such as a positive feng shui design and bamboo gardens.

Lingering around the back of Hong Kong Island during off-season, the boat would dock in accessible spots for Ching Ming Festival, allowing relatives onboard to take part in traditional grave-sweeping activities.

Infinity and beyond

The Elysium Space service is taking off-land burials one step further, by launching ashes into orbit.

For $1,990 each, 100 families per rocket launch can send a 1-gram capsule of ashes into space. The satellite containing the capsules typically orbits the Earth for several months before blazing back into the atmosphere, like a shooting star.

"Space is not just about technology, it is a beautiful landscape that can be used to create poetic celebrations," former NASA space system engineer Thomas Civeit, the founder of Elysium Space, tells CNN.

"Narratives about our souls traveling through the stars after we pass away already exist in Japan," explains Civeit, adding that about 50% of the US-based company's customers are Japanese.

The first launch departed from Kauai, Hawaii, in 2015, with another scheduled for this year.

Families can use an app to track the orbiting satellite, and even see it with the naked eye, if wearing binoculars.

"New practices like these don't come out of the blue," says Suzuki, also an adviser for Elysium Space.

"The space burial is a culmination of technological possibilities and the younger generation's desire to write a new story about the afterlife journey."